Film capacitors having a self-healing function are disclosed in Patent Documents 1 through 4, for example.
The film capacitor disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a pair of capacitor electrodes, which confront each other with a dielectric film sandwiched therebetween. At least one of the capacitor electrodes is formed by metal evaporation, and is divided equally into spaced or arbitrarily spaced intervals in the longitudinal direction of the film by a plurality of insulating grooves, thereby providing a plurality of segmented electrode banks. The segmented electrode banks comprise electrodes formed by a network of insulating grooves, with a plurality of narrow current paths left therebetween.
The capacitor electrodes that sandwich the dielectric film serve as a metalized film having 2 to 20 independent small electrodes arrayed in the longitudinal direction of the film, and a plurality of independent small electrodes arrayed in the transverse direction of the film. The metalized film is coiled into a roll, and metal is sprayed onto opposite end faces of the roll to form terminal electrodes, thus producing a capacitor element. One or more capacitor elements are encased within the film capacitor.
The film capacitor disclosed in Patent Document 2 comprises a dielectric film and a metal-evaporated electrode disposed on one side of the dielectric film. The metal-evaporated electrode includes a plurality of divided electrodes arrayed in longitudinal and transverse directions thereof. The divided electrodes are segmented by non-electrode margins. Margin fuses having a fuse function are disposed within the margins. The margin fuses are superposed over other margin fuses provided on upper and lower confronting electrodes.
The film capacitor disclosed in Patent Document 3 is a sheet capacitor, which comprises a dielectric capacitor sheet having a thin metal film thereon and which is coiled into a capacitor roll in a direction in which the dielectric capacitor sheet extends. The film capacitor includes a metalized region, which includes the thin metal film with divisions therein. The thin metal film has a partially divided section extending transverse to the direction in which the dielectric capacitor sheet extends.
The film capacitor disclosed in Patent Document 4 includes a pair of evaporated electrodes having divided electrodes connected in parallel with each other by fuses, and which extend from a substantially transverse central region toward insulated margins that reside in an effective electrode area providing a capacitance. Since the fuses and the divided electrodes are disposed closely to the insulated margins, where reduced currents flow at positions spaced from components plated by sprayed metal, the heat produced by the fuses is reduced so as to lower a rise in temperature.
Ceramic capacitors having a floating electrode within a sintered dielectric substrate, which are different from film capacitors having floating electrodes within a stacked film assembly made up of a stack of dielectric films, are disclosed in Patent Documents 5 through 7, for example.
A film capacitor comprising a rolled polypropylene film, which supports thereon two electrodes disposed along the transverse direction of the polypropylene film and which are connected in series to each other, is disclosed in Patent Document 8, for example.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3710873;    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-199371;    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-504747;    Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-134561;    Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 07-263269;    Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2590357;    Patent Document 7: Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 60-076028; and    Patent Document 8: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-288171.